Tawfiq Tirawi, head of the Palestinian Authority's inquiry into the death, told AFP: "We need to study the report. We can't take a position on it until we've looked at it."

Mr Arafat remains an icon for many Palestinians

Conflicting findings

In July 2012, an al-Jazeera documentary reported that scientists at the Swiss Institute of Radiation Physics had found "significant" traces of a highly radioactive and toxic material on personal effects given to Mr Arafat's widow Suha after his death, including his trademark keffiyeh scarf.

Mrs Arafat asked the Palestinian Authority to authorise the exhumation of his remains in order "to reveal the truth".

The Palestinian Authority granted French investigators and a team of Swiss scientists permission for the exhumation and to take samples for testing.

Russia also sent experts, and samples were sent to its Federal Medico-Biological Agency.

Swiss scientists' findings

Experts at the Vaudois University Hospital Centre (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland, conducted tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat's exhumed body in November 2012

The Swiss report said there were "unexpectedly high levels of polonium-210 and lead-210 activity" found in specimens taken from Arafat's ribs, pelvis and soil that absorbed his bodily fluids

It noted a lack of adequate biological specimens, particularly soft tissues, and the eight years between death and the investigation, rendering detection subject to uncertainties

But it concluded results "moderately support the proposition that the death was the consequence of poisoning with polonium-210"

Mrs Arafat also filed a civil suit at a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, alleging that her husband was murdered by an unnamed "perpetrator X". French prosecutors began a murder inquiry in August 2012.

Last month, a forensic expert said that the levels of radioactive polonium found in Mr Arafat's remains by the Swiss scientists were 18 to 36 times higher than normal.

However, they said their findings could not categorically prove the theory that he was poisoned.

The Swiss scientists had stressed that they had been unable to reach a more definitive conclusion because of the time that had elapsed since Arafat's death, the limited samples available and the confused "chain of custody" of some of the specimens.

In November, Palestinian officials said the third report, by Russian experts, did not give "sufficient evidence" to support the decision that Mr Arafat was poisoned. However, experts who reviewed the document for al-Jazeera - which said it had obtained a copy - cast doubt on its findings.

Also on Tuesday, Mr Tirawi said he would soon name the people he believed were responsible for Mr Arafat's death.

"I promise that the next press conference will be the last and will cast into the light of day everyone who perpetrated, took part in or conspired in the matter," he told Palestine Today television, Reuters reports.